


The Glove Mystery

by Sonic The Hedgehog (trx)



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Baking, Family Feels, Food, Found Family, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Gloves, Mystery, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23069500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trx/pseuds/Sonic%20The%20Hedgehog
Summary: Maddie thinks it's time to find out what's up with those gloves.
Relationships: Maddie Wachowski/Tom Wachowski, Sonic the Hedgehog & Maddie Wachowski
Comments: 7
Kudos: 374





	The Glove Mystery

It had taken a few days for Maddie to really notice it, and with a blue alien hedgehog, she couldn’t be sure what counted as normal. Style was one thing, but Sonic seemed to have a particular thing about wearing gloves at all times.

What’s more, those gloves seemed a little too well fitted for his hands. Where did he get them, and how did they stay so pearly white given that he had lived in the woods?

“I’m going to figure this out,” she told Tom one late evening, sitting in bed.

Tom didn’t look so sure about that idea. “It could be an alien hedgehog thing,” he said. “Maybe everyone on his planet wears gloves like that. He even sleeps with them! For all we know, hands could be intimate to his kind, so it’s like us wearing underwear. You really shouldn’t push it by being sneaky.”

“Okay, I get that,” she replied, looking a bit frustrated. “But what if he ever hurts his hand and I need to remove a glove to treat it? I’m a vet, Tom! Given how he blurs around the countryside, this may happen eventually. What if he freaks out if I try to take it off? I gotta know in advance.”

“Hun, I think you are just curious and want to know.”

“Worse than that,” she said, ignoring his very true observation, “what if he’s emulating us?”

Tom looked at her with confusion. Clearly, humans did not wear such gloves.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed,” she pressed. “They look like Mickey Mouse gloves. He might be emulating characters from our cartoons that look like-”

“Animals,” Tom finished, finally looking concerned. “Well, he does have a thing for movies. Tried to win a bar fight by hitting a guy with a bottle and was surprised when it didn’t break.”

“I’m going to figure this out!” Maddie said once more, having made up her mind. “First thing tomorrow.”

* * *

In the morning, Tom left early for his shift. If he was honest with himself, he was glad not to be around for Maddie’s little quest and whatever uncomfortable situations it entailed.

“Sonic, sweety!” she called up to the attic. “We are going to bake a cake today!”

“Food?” the hedgehog’s voice came down the staircase. It took longer to reach Maddie’s ears than it took for Sonic to appear right in front of her, a huge grin on his face.

Startled, she looked at him with a furrowed brow. “No zooming around the house, dear, that’s the rule.”

“Ah, yes, lame, and I can’t promise that,” he said excitedly. “So, chocolate? I’ve always wanted to try chocolate cake!”

“Oh, that’s a good idea!” she said, finding it difficult to be stern to him and decided to let it slide, even if that would invite more super speed where it didn’t belong. “First, go wash your hands. Twice! They need to be extra clean when preparing food.”

She went after him to the bathroom and observed what he was doing. After all, he would have to take off his gloves to wash his hands, right? Only he didn’t. Sonic was perfectly happy washing his gloves, with soap, extra carefully and with a bit of super speed at the end.

“Crapcrapcrapcrap,” he muttered as the soapy water flew off in all directions and covered the mirror.

Maddie really had to try not to laugh at his antics. Maybe, she thought, he would figure out on his own that speed didn’t always make things easier inside a real household.

“I can’t believe it,” she later muttered under her breath. She had been sure that baking a cake and handling a knife and ingredients would require Sonic to take off his gloves. Instead, he was handling everything with precision despite those thickly gloved fingers.

“Goodness, kiddo, you are doing such a great job!”

He looked at her a bit shyly, kneading the dough. “Aw, well, I must’ve seen Cake Lady at the confectionery prepare these for years. I’ve always wanted to make one. Guess I can scratch that off my bucket list, too!”

“You handle it well, but wouldn’t it be easier without these thick gloves?”

“Nuh uh,” Sonic said curtly, putting the dough into a cake pan.

At this point, Maddie was beginning to run out of ideas. Should she just ask him directly and risk a potentially embarrassing incident? She still did have one more ace up her sleeve.

After they had maneuvered the pan into the oven, which Sonic already had the perfect gloves for, as Maddie had to admit, they sat down in the living room to wait.

“So, I've got these puzzles here,” she said, picking up a number of metallic objects from the table. They consisted of interlocked rings at weirdly bent shapes.

Sonic observed her with interest, eyes growing wide.

“I really could use your help with these,” she explained, rattling one of them. “There is a trick to separate each of these, but you gotta figure it out and I just can’t seem to. It’s really delicate.” Too delicate for gloved hands, she figured.

“Oho ho ho,” Sonic said, laughing, “just have your clever hedgehog try one of these. I’ll do it slowly.”

In a manner of microseconds, the first pair of rings was undone.

“Sonic!”

“I know, my blueness is an indicator of cleverhood!”

Maddie had trouble keeping her laughter to herself. “Nhoho, I mean that was too fast!”

“I was very extra slow for you, Prezel Lady! Tried a whole bunch of things before I had it.”

And, of course, he managed to do it _with_ those toon gloves.

“Do you feel anything through these,” she asked, pointing at his hand. “I mean, you pet Ozzy with them, and you solve these delicate puzzles.”

“Yes, I have sensitive hands,” he replied, a quizzical look on his face. “Why?”

Maddie was fumbling now, not sure how to proceed this line of conversation. “Uhm, well, it seems a hindrance but you aren’t slowed down by them. I can’t even use a key when I wear gloves in the winter.”

Sonic had to think about that for a moment. “I guess it’s because you didn’t grow up always wearing them.”

“Wait, what? You have been wearing these all your life?”

“Of course!” he said happily, as if that was the most ordinary thing in the world. “They expand as you grow and never wear down. Wish I had socks like that.”

Come to think of it, she had never seen him without socks either. But she hadn’t noticed it before, because they always had holes in them from all the stress they were under, and so he did need to change them. But actually being without them for more than a microsecond? Nope.

Lost in her thoughts, she put a hand on his head and scratched his ear, making him yip. He closed one of his eyes and chuckled. Getting rather embarrassed by his reactions and sounds, he ducked out of the way but looked at her with a friendly expression that did not speak of annoyance.

“Dear, I don’t know your planet,” she finally said, apologetically. “So, please teach me, why do you always wear them?”

His expression changed to one of innocent confusion. It was as if the question had never occurred to him, like asking why water was wet or why you had to stand up before you could run.

“I have fur,” he said softly.

“What?”

“FUR!”

“Okay, you have fur, I can see that.” Maddie had no clue what fur had to do with gloves. “You don’t get cold…which means you don’t need gloves.”

Now Sonic fell back on the couch, laughing. “You silly humans,” he managed between fits of giggles. “You don’t have fur, so you don’t wear gloves.”

Maddie was dumbfounded. That was exactly the opposite way it was supposed to work! You used clothing to stay warm, not the other way around!

Sonic’s round belly was twitching in giggles. When he finally collected himself, Maddie had her arms crossed and looked a bit defensive.

“How often do you, heh, wash your hands?” he asked.

“I dunno, lots of times a day.”

“How long does it take?”

She uncrossed her arms, confused about where this was going. “As a vet, I’m really thorough,” she said, “and oooooh…”

He just looked at her with a sly expression.

“Nooo, that’s not the reason,” she said, disbelieving. “Is it?”

“Try having it take fifteen minutes,” he replied. “Every time! Because, you know, you need to get all the crud you touch out of your furry hands.”

Maddie really wanted to slap her forehead. It was so mundane, and so obvious, and so unavoidable. “Soo…it’s not some intimacy thing with you mobian hedgehogs that makes you cover them, right?”

Sonic went into another fit of giggles. “It that what you were thinking?”

“Tom was,” she said quickly, pretending she hadn’t agreed with that possibility.

“Oh, I bet he’d have fun getting the donut glazing out of his fur if he had any,” he said and, to Maddie’s surprise, slowly removed one of his gloves.

His hand was blue and had tan colored patches on his fingertips. It looked like a mixture of a human hand and a paw, just like Maddie had seen in modern animated films. Zootopia came to mind, and if she was honest, Sonic’s handpaws were about as handsome and endearing to look at as the rest of him.

“They are good looking,” she said, making him smile and shyly wave her off. “I mean it. Would be nice to see them more often. Maybe at times when you don’t need to touch anything.”

Sonic considered this request for a moment, thinking about movie nights after all the snacks had been used up. “You know,” he said, “I’m sure I can find some times. Besides, this house is much cleaner than a cave.”

They beamed at each other.

The egg-timer was ringing, signaling the cake needed a temperature change.

“Oh, and what about the socks?” she asked just as they wanted to get up, remembering he had the same issue down there – only the holes really didn’t help him stay clean.

“Uuh…yes, I have fur there, too. And pads, though.”

“I know, I saw that when you were unconscious. Too many holes.”

Sonic suddenly looked really flustered. “It still helps,” he said. “And they need protection! You know, running super fast and all that.”

“Ozzy doesn’t need paw protection.”

“Well, I do!”

“I don’t think you do,” Maddie said, grinning. Flustered Sonic was just too cute. “The forces on your joints and the air resistance would normally rip you to shreds. Your abilities must be magical in nature, and you’re not vulnerable to your own powers.”

“Alright! I _don’t_ need it,” he said, red in the face. “These speedy paws are high precision instruments and very sensitive in other ways, okay? Also, there is a cake in distress. Let me go save it real quick!”

And gone he was.

Maddie was left chuckling in the living room, bemused about the _especially_ ticklish hedgehog who, in the end, did hide something for a personal reason after all. It would stay her little secret.


End file.
